Sanatura 84 Limon 66

Arguably the toughest place to play in this league is at Limon. First you start with a three hour ride down to the Caribbean coast. Then you factor in the heat and the humidity in a gym a stone's throw away from the ocean; add in a loud crowd that knows it's basketball and is really into the game. Finally, you top that off with what is usually a good team and that all factors into a tough roast test for any team.





Limon has been absent from First Division for the past three years, which is a tremendous blow to the development of basketball in Costa Rica. Limon is the cradle for our best athletes. That's really not a debatable point; take a look at the soccer teams, the basketball teams as well as the other sports disciplines (including newly crowned 400m world champ Nery Brenes) and you will see plenty of Limon's finest in action.

I decided to drive to Limon because I had to get back as quickly as possible after the game (early AM meeting the next day). So armed with plenty of iPod material (I recommend the Bill Simmons' podcast with Magic Johnson for all you hoop junkies Magic podcast), I braced myself for the three hour drive; the traffic was a lot heavier than I anticipated so I waltzed into the gym minutes before tip-off. After the game,  got back in the car and drove the three hours back (a little less without so much traffic). So that was six hours of driving in one night.

I've had a player the last three years who was living in Limon and played in Escazu. I couldn't fully appreciate the extent of his sacrifice. I drove six hours in one night and woke up sore the next day. Jake McKenzie would come up to San Jose two or three times per week during the season on a slow bus. Those are the sort of sacrifices the powers that be in this league don't appreciate.

The game itself was pretty sloppy in the first half as both teams were feeling each other out. We were playing with new balls and that translated into sloppy turnovers for both teams. We had an excellent third quarter in which Mike was able to get to the hoop that helped us break away. Wins are not easy to come by in Limon; the score didn't fully reflect the magnitude of the challenge.

Game Notes

• Both Neil and I were on the bench but we weren't able to stand. License issues and in my case because I showed up late.
• Michael led the scoring with 28 points. After that we had a lot of balanced scoring across the team.
• It was nice to see Kendall Freeman lace up the sneakers for Limon. Kendall works for the Justice department so he hasn't had the time to play ball the last couple years, but now that Limon has a team he has a chance to return to the courts.